There Nereids sing, and Triton winds his shell; No, no-a lonelier, lovelier path be mine: And deck my mossy couch with Sharon's deathless rose. AN ITALIAN SCENE. On Arno's bosom, as he calmly flows, Of waveless water, rest her radiant head. DEDICATION HYMN. Written for the Dedication of the new Congregational Church in Plymouth, built upon the Ground occupied by the earliest Congregational Church in America. The winds and waves were roaring; The Pilgrims met for prayer; And here, their God adoring, They stood, in open air. When breaking day they greeted, Gives back our choral song. From hearts as true as theirs! What have we, Lord, to bind us To this, the Pilgrims' shore!— Their hill of graves behind us, Their watery way before, Where graves and griefs are not; Than that of love divine. CENTENNIAL ODE. Written for the Second Centennial Celebration of the Settle- To your cool shades and springs, Exiled though free. Ye sister hills, lay down In homage due ;- These are the living lights, That from your bold, green heights, Till they who name the name Toward Bethlehem's star. And raised their hymn. Guard well your trust,- Their garnered dust. Thou high and holy ONE, All nature fills, While day shall break and close, While night her crescent shows, O, let thy light repose On these our hills. M. M. NOAH. MORDECAI MANUEL NOAH, whose popular reputation, as a newspaper writer of ease and pleasantry, was extended through the greater part of a long life, was born in Philadelphia July 19, 1785. He was early apprenticed to a mechanical business, which he soon left, and engaged in the study of the law, mingling in politics and literature. He removed to Charleston, S. C., where he was busily engaged in politics of the day. In 1813, under Madison, he was appointed U. S. consul to Morocco. The vessel in which he sailed from Charleston was taken by a British frigate, and he was carried to England and detained several weeks a prisoner, when he was allowed to proceed to his destination. After his return to America in 1819, he published a volume of his Travels in England, France, Spain, and the Barbary States, from 1813 to 1815. He had now established himself at New York, where he edited the National Advocate, a democratic journal. He was elected sheriff of the city and county. In a squib of the time he was taunted with his religion. "Pity," said his opponents, "that Christians are to be hereafter hung by a Jew." "Pretty Christians," replied the Major, as he was generally called, "to require hanging at all." The National Advocate was discontinued in 1826, and Noah then commenced the publication of the New York Enquirer, which he conducted for a while till it was annexed to the Morning Courier, a union which gave rise to the present large commercial journal, The Courier and Enquirer. In 1834, in connexion with Thomas Gill, he established a popular daily newspaper, The Evening Star, which attained considerable reputation from the ready pen of Noah, who was considered the best newspaper paragraphist of his day. His style in these effusions well represented his character: facile, fluent, of a humorous turn, pleasing in expression, though sometimes ungrammatical, with a cheerful vein of moralizing, and a knowledge of the world. The Star was united to the Times, becoming the Times and Star, and was finally merged in the Commercial Advertiser in 1840. After this, in July, 1842, Noah originated the Union, a daily paper, illustrating a new phase of the Major's political life; and like all his other undertakings of the kind, enlivened by the editor's peculiar pleasantry. It was continued in his hands through the year, after which Noah, in conjunction with Messrs. Deans and Howard, established a Sunday newspaper, The Times and Messenger, for which he wrote weekly till within a few days of his death, by an attack of apoplexy, March 22, 1851. There was no man better known in his day in New York than Major Noah. His easy manners, fund of anecdote, fondness for biographical and historical memoirs, acquaintance with the public characters, political and social, of half a century, with whom his newspaper undertakings had brought him in contact; his sympathy with the amusements of the town of all descriptions, actors, singers, and every class of performers, all of which were severally promoted by his benevolent disposition, made his company much sought and appreciated. In 1845 Noah delivered A Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews, which was publisheda fanciful speculation. Some time before his death he published a little volume of his newspaper essays, entitled Gleanings from a Gathered Harrest; but they are of his more quiet and grave moralizings, and hardly indicate the shrewdness and satiric mirth which pointed his paragraphs against the follies of the times. In his way, too, the kindly Major had been something of a dramatist. He I am happy to hear that your work on the American Drama is in press, and trust that you may realize from it that harvest of fame and money to which your untiring industry and diversified labors give you an eminent claim. You desire me to furnish you a list of my dramatic productions; it will, my dear sir, constitute a sorry link in the chain of American writers-my plays have all been ad captandum: a kind of amateur performance, with no claim to the character of a settled, regular, or domiciliated writer for the green-room-a sort of volunteer supernumerary-a dramatic writer by "particular desire, and for this night only," as they say in the bills of the play; my "line," as you well know, has been in the more rugged paths of politics, a line in which there is more fact than poetry, more feeling than fiction; in which, to be sure, there are "exits and entrances "-where the "prompter's whistle" is constantly heard in the voice of the people; but which, in our popular government, almost disqualifies us for the more soft and agreeable translation of the lofty conceptions of tragedy, the pure diction of genteel comedy, or the wit, gaiety, and humor of broad farce. I had an early hankering for the national drama, a kind of juvenile patriotism, which burst forth, for the first time, in a few sorry doggrels in the form of a prologue to a play, which a Thespian company, of which I was a member, produced in the South Street Theatre-the old American theatre in Philadelphia. The idea was probably suggested by the sign of the Federal Convention at the tavern opposite the theatre. You, no doubt, remember the picture and the motto: an excellent piece of painting of the kind, representing a group of venerable •personages engaged in public discussions, with the following distich: These thirty-eight great men have signed a powerful deed, The sign must have been painted soon after the adoption of the federal constitution, and I remember to have stood "many a time and oft," gazing, when a boy, at the assembled patriots, particularly the venerable head and spectacles of Dr. Franklin, always in conspicuous relief. In our Thespian corps, the honor of cutting the plays, substituting new passages, casting parts, and writing couplets at the exits, was divided between myself and a fellow of infinite wit and humor, by the name of Helmbold; who subsequently became the editor of a scandalous little paper, called the Tickler: he was a rare rascal, perpetrated all kinds of calumnies, was constantly muleted in fiues, sometimes imprisoned, was full of faults, which were forgotten in his conversational qualities and dry sallies of genuine wit, particularly his Dutch stories. After years of singlar vicissitudes, Helmbold joined the army as a common soldier, fought bravely during the late war, obtained a commission, and died. Our little company soon dwindled away; the expenses were too heavy for our pockets; our writings and performances were sufficiently wretched, but as the audience was admitted without cost, they were too polite to express any disapprobation. We recorded all our doings in a little weekly paper, published, I believe, by Jenny Riddle, at the corner of Chestnut and Third street, opposite the tavern kept by that sturdy old democrat, Israel Israel. From a boy, I was a regular attendant of the Chestnut Street Theatre, during the management of Wignell and Reinagle, and made great efforts to compass the purchase of a season ticket, which I obtained generally of the treasurer, George Davis, for $18. Our habits through life are frequently governed and directed by our early steps I seldom missed a night; and always retired to bed, after witnessing a good play, gratified and improved: and thus, probably, escaped the haunts of taverns, and the pursuits of depraved pleasures, which too frequently allure and destroy our young men; hence I was always the firm friend of the drama, and had an undoubted right to oppose my example through life to the horror and hostility expressed by seetarians to play and play-houses generally. Independent of several of your plays which had obtained possession of the stage, and were duly incorporated in the legitimate drama, the first call to support the productions of a fellow townsman, was, I think, Barker's opera of the "Indian Princess." Charles Ingersoll had previously written a tragedy, a very able production for a very young man, which was supported by all the "good society;" but Barker who was "one of us," an amiable and intelligent young fellow, who owed nothing to hereditary rank, though his father was a Whig, and a soldier of the Revolution, was in reality a fine spirited poet, a patriotic ode writer, and finally a gallant soldier of the late war. The managers gave Barker an excellent chance with all his plays, and he had merit and popularity to give them in return full houses. About this time, I ventured to attempt a little melo-drama, under the title of The Fortress of Sorrento, which, not having money enough to pay for printing, nor sufficient influence to have acted, I thrust the manuscript in my pocket, and having oceasion to visit New York, I called in at David Longworth's Dramatic Repository one day, spoke of the little piece, and struck a bargain with him, by giving him the manuscript in return for a copy of every play he had published, which at once furnished me with a tolerably large dramatic collection. I believe the play never was performed, and I was almost ashamed to own it; but it was my first regular attempt at dramatic composition. In the year 1812, while in Charleston, S. C., Mr. Young requested me to write a piece for his wife's benefit. You remember her, no doubt; remarkable as she was for her personal beauty and amiable deportment, it would have been very ungallant to have refused, particularly as he requested that it should be a .66 breeches part," to use a green-room term, though she was equally attractive in every character. Poor Mrs. Young! she died last year in Philadelphia. When she first arrived in New York, from London, it was difficult to conceive a more perfect beauty; her complexion was of dazzling whiteness, her golden hair and ruddy complexion, figure somewhat embonpoint, and graceful carriage, made her a great favorite. I soon produced the little piece, which was called Paul and Alexis, or the Orphans of the Rhine. I was, at that period, a very active politician, and my political opponents did me the honor to go to the theatre the night it was performed, for the purpose of hissing it, which was not attempted until the curtain fell, and the piece was successful. After three years' absence in Europe and Africa, I saw the same piece performed at the Park under the title of The Wandering Boys, which even now holds possession of the stage. It seems Mr. Young sent the manuscript to London, where the title was changed, and the bantling cut up, altered, and considerably improved. About this time, John Miller, the American bookseller in London, paid us a visit. Among the passengers in the same ship was a fine English girl of great talent and promise, Miss Leesugg, afterwards Mrs. Hackett. She was engaged at the Park as a singer, and Phillips, who was here about the same period, fulfilling a most successful engagement, was decided and unqualified in his admiration of her talent. Every one took an interest in her success: she was gay, kind-hearted, and popular, always in excellent spirits, and always perfect. Anxious for her success, I ventured to write a play for her benefit, and in three days finished the patriotic piece of She would be a Soldier, or the Battle of Chippewa, which, I was happy to find, produced her an excellent house. Mrs. Hackett retired from the stage after her marriage, and lost six or seven years of profitable and unrivalled engagement. "After this play, I became in a manner domiciliated in the green-room. My friends, Price and Simpson, who had always been exceedingly kind and liberal, allowed me to stray about the premises like one of the family, and always anxious for their success, I ventured upon another attempt for a holyday occasion, and produced Marion, or the Hero of Lake George. It was played on the 25th of November-Evacuation day, and I bustled about among my military friends, to raise a party in support of a military play, and what with generals, staff-officers, rank and file, the Park Theatre was so crammed, that not a word of the play was heard, which was a very fortunate affair for the author. The managers presented me with a pair of handsome silver pitchers, which I still retain as a memento of their good will and friendly consideration. You must bear in mind that while I was thus employed in occasional attempts at play-writing, I was engaged in editing a daily journal, and in all the fierce contests of political strife; I had, therefore, but little time to devote to all that study and reflection so essential to the success of dramatic composition. My next piece, I believe, was written for the benefit of a relative and friend, who wanted something to bring a house; and as the struggle for liberty in Greece was at that period the prevailing excitement, I finished the melo-drama of The Grecian Captive, which was brought out with all the advantages of good scenery and music. As a 66 good house" was of more consequence to the actor than fame to the author, it was resolved that the hero of the piece should make his appearance on an elephant, and the heroine on a camel, which were procured from a neighboring menagerie, and the tout ensemble was sufficiently imposing, only it happened that the huge elephant, in shaking his skin, so rocked the castle on his back, that the Grecian general nearly lost his balance, and was in imminent danger of coming down from his "high estate," to the infinite merriment of the audience. On this occasion, to use another significant phrase, a "gag" was hit upon of a new character altogether. The play was printed, and each auditor was presented with a copy gratis, as he entered the house. Figure to yourself a thousand people in a theatre, each with a book of the play in hand-imagine the turning over a thousand leaves simultaneously, the buzz and fluttering it produced, and you will readily believe that the actors entirely forgot their parts, and even the equanimity of the elephant and camel were essentially disturbed. My last appearance as a dramatic writer was in another national piece, called The Siege of Tripoli, which the managers persuaded me to bring out for my own benefit, being my first attempt to derive any profit from dramatic efforts. The piece was elegantly got up-the house crowded with beauty and fashion-everything went off in the happiest manner; when a short time after the audience had retired, the Park Theatre was discovered to be on fire, and in a short time was a heap of ruins. This conflagration burnt out all my dramatic fire and energy, since which I have been, as you well know, peaceably employed in settling the affairs of the nation, and mildly engaged in the political differences and disagreements which are so fruitful in our great state.* I still, however, retain a warm interest for the success of the drama, and all who are entitled to success engaged in sustaining it, and to none greater than to yourself, who has done more, in actual labor and successful efforts, than any man in America. That you may realize all you have promised yourself, and all that you are richly entitled to, is the sincere wish of Dear sir, WM. DUNLAP, Esq. Your friend and servant, FRANKLIN COLLEGE, GA. DR. CHURCH, the president of this institution, which is situated at Athens, Georgia, in A Discourse delivered before the Historical Society of the state, has thus traced the progress of education in that region. "The first constitution of Georgia was adopted the 5th of February, 1777, only a few months after the Declaration of Independence. The 54th section of this constitution declares, Schools shall be erected in each county, and supported at the general expense of the state.' This is an The author does not add, which was the fact, that the proceeds of this fatal benefit evening which he received, amounting to the considerable sum of nearly two thousand dollars, were the next day given to the actors, and others, who had suffered by the fire. important record in the history of our education. On the 31st of July, 1783, the Legislature appropriated 1000 acres of land to each county for the support of free schools. In 1784, a few months after the ratification of the treaty of peace, by which our national independence was acknowledged, the legislature, again in session at Savannah, passed an act, appropriating 40,000 acres of land for the endowment of a college or university. This act commences with the remarkable preamble: Whereas, the encouragement of religion and learning is an object of great importance to any community, and must tend to the prosperity and advantage of the same.' "In 1785, the charter of the university was granted, the preamble to which would do honor to any legislature, and will stand a monument to the wisdom and patriotism of those who framed, and of those who adopted it. "As it is the distinguishing happiness of free governments that civil order should be the result of choice and not necessity, and the common wishes of the people become the laws of the land, their public prosperity and even existence very much depends upon suitably forming the minds and morals of their citizens. When the minds of the people in general are viciously disposed and unprincipled, and their conduct disorderly, a free government will be attended with greater confusions, and evils more horrid than the wild uncultivated state of nature. It can only be happy where the public principles and opinions are properly directed and their manners regulated. "This is an influence beyond the stretch of laws and punishments, and can be claimed only by religion and education. It should, therefore, be among the first objects of those who wish well to the national prosperity, to encourage and support the principles of religion and morality; and early to place the youth under the forming hand of society, that, by instruction, they may be moulded to the love of virtue and good order. Sending them abroad to other countries for education will not answer the purposes, is too humiliating an acknowledgment of the ignorance or inferiority of our own, and will always be the cause of so great foreign attachments that, upon principles of policy, it is inadmissible.' "In 1792, an act was passed appropriating one thousand pounds for the endowment of an Academy in each county. "In 1798, a third constitution was adopted. The 13th section of the 4th article declares: The arts and sciences shall be patronized in one or more seminaries of learning." "In 1817, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were appropriated to the support of poor schools. In 1818, every 10th and 100th lot of land in seven new counties were appropriated to the cause of education, and in 1821, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars were set apart for the support of county academies."* The selection of the site for the university was peculiar. It was located on a tract of ground, on what was then the remote border of population on the north-western boundary of the territory, in reference to the future growth of the state A Discourse delivered before the Georgia Historical So. ciety, on the occasion of its Sixth Anniversary, Feb. 12, 1845, rather than present convenience. In addition to the forty thousand acres originally granted by the legislature for the support of the university, Governor Milledge generously presented to the institution, at an expense of four thousand dollars, a tract of land of seven hundred acres, better adapted for the site, on which Franklin College was established in 1801. It was some time before these endowments of land became available for the support of the institution. They have now provided an ample fund. In 1816 the lands of the original grant were sold, and one hundred thousand dollars were invested in bank stock, guaranteed by the state to yield an annual interest of eight per cent. From the lands purchased by Governor Milledge, the college has received, by the sale of lots at various times, some thirty thousand dollars, twenty thousand of which are invested as a permanent fund. At the outset, the institution was embarrassed for want of ready pecuniary means; but its difficulties were met with spirit by the leading men of the state, among whom Dr. Church enumerates in his Discourse, Baldwin, Jackson, Milledge, Early, the Houstons, the Habershams, Clay, Few, Brownson, Taliaferro, Stephens, Walton, Jones, and Gov. Jackson. The line of Presidents has been the Rev. Dr. Josiah Meigs, from 1801 to 1811; the Rev. Dr. John Brown, from 1811 to 1816; the Rev. Dr. Robert Finley, who died after a year's incumbency, in 1817; the Rev. Dr. Moses Waddel, from 1819 to 1829; and the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Church, from that time. Dr. Meigs had been Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in Yale Dr. Brown had held the chair of Moral Philosophy in Columbia College, South Carolina; Dr. Waddel, one of the most popular teachers of the South, was a native of North Carolina. He passed forty-five years as a teacher, dying in 1840 at the age of seventy. Previously to the sale of the lands in 1816, the college was closed for three years, in consequence of the war and the want of funds. Its whole number of graduates to the close of 1852 appears by the catalogue to be six hundred and ninety-nine. The college buildings have, cost some eighty thousand dollars. The library consists of over twelve thousand volumes, and there is an excellent philosophical, chemical, and astronomical apparatus, with a valuable cabinet of minerals, and a neat botanic garden. The college is under the charge of twentyeight trustees, elected at first by the legislature, but all vacancies are filled by the trustees. The Senate of the State and Board of Trustees constitute the Senatus Academicus of the state, and all institutions of learning receiving funds from the state must report to the Senatus, of which the Governor of the State is president, at each meeting of the Legislature. Of the other college institutions in the state, the Presbyterian institution of Oglethorpe University, situated near Milledgeville, was founded in 1837. It grew out of a manual labor school under the direction of the Rev. Dr. C. P. Beman, who became the first president of the college in 1838. On his retirement in 1840, he was succeeded by the present incumbent, the Rev. Dr. S. K. Talmage. The number of students by the Its alumni, catalogue of 1853-1 is sixty-four. from 1838 to 1853, have been one hundred and thirty-eight. The president is Professor of Ancient Languages and Belles Lettres. Mercer University is a Baptist institution, situated at Penfield; and Emory College, at Oxford, is attached to the Methodist Church. The former has a theological course of instruction. It dates from 1838. Emory College was founded in 1837. Oxford, the town in which it is located, is a pleasant rural village with a permanent population of some six hundred persons, who have chosen that residence almost exclusively with reference to the college. The present head of Mercer is Dr. N. M. Crawford; of Emory, the Rev. Dr. P. S. Pierce. In August 7, 1851, the semi-centennial anniversary of Franklin College was celebrated, and an address delivered in the college chapel at Athens before the Society of Alumni by the Hon. George R. Gilmer, who took for his subject "The Literary Progress of Georgia." In this discourse, which was printed at the time, will be found a genial picturesque narrative, with numerous anecdotes of the early days of Georgia, sketches of the character of her citizens and of their means of education, with the stray Ichabod Cranes who preceded the foundation of her academies and colleges, which have since become the distinguished ornaments of the state. ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, MARYLAND. IN 1782 an act of assembly in Maryland was passed for founding a seminary on the Eastern shore. The charter of incorporation required that a sum of money should be raised by contribution equal to five hundred pounds for each county in that region. Ten thousand pounds were thus collected in five months. The college went into operation at Chestertown, and took the name of Washington, who was one of the contributors to its funds. Its first annual Commencement was held May 16, 1783. Washington visited the college the next year. At the same time, in 1784, an act was passed for founding a college on the western shore, and constituting the same, together with Washington College, one institution. This was incorporated by the name of the Visitors and Governors of St. John's College, and a grant of seventeen hundred pounds "annually and for ever," was made by the legislature. There was also a subscription of ten thousand pounds, of which two thousand were subscribed by the Rector and Visitors of the Annapolis school. A board was organized, and its first meeting held in 1786. The joint institution was opened at Annapolis in 1789, and Dr. John McDowell was chosen as Professor of Mathematics, and afterwards as Principal. In 1792 six professors and teachers were constantly employed in the college, which was well attended, and sent forth numbers of the distinguished men of the state. In 1805, the legislature, by an illiberal act of economy, withdrew the annual fund solemnly granted at the founding of the college. This was for the time a virtual breaking up of the institution. Efforts were made for the restoration of the grant. In 1811 the legislature appropriated one thousand dollars, and in 1821 granted a lottery the proceeds of which were twenty thousand dollars. In 1832 two thousand dollars per annum were secured to |